


A Princess Can Dream

by DesertVixen



Category: Voltron: Lion Voltron
Genre: F/M, KAEX, blind exchange, down with the pink dress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 00:46:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13446924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: Originally written for the KAEX Winter 2017 Blind ExchangeThe Voltron Force attends Sven and Romelle's engagement ball





	A Princess Can Dream

Keith looked up at the top of the grand sweeping staircase and saw Allura standing there, next to Romelle and Bandor.

She took his breath away, made him forget how much he hated the dress uniform with its tight collar. Lance’s murmured “Wow” behind him barely registered.

He was reminded of the first time he had seen her, standing at the top of another staircase in a ruined castle. Allura had been a shining vision in her pink dress, blonde hair falling around her shoulders, like something out of a fairy tale. It had felt completely right when they knelt and pledged their loyalty to her, to Arus, like knights of old. 

She had been the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

Until tonight.

Tonight, the pink dress he had been expecting was replaced by a silvery gray one that made her look as if she had been draped in moonlight, except for the bright sash she wore over it – black, red, green, blue, and yellow, the Arusian coat of arms pinned over her heart. Her slim shoulders were bare except for a wisp of sleeve, her hair twisted up in an elaborate style. She wore a gleaming tiara set with gems – again in Voltron’s colors – and a necklace of Arusian diamonds drawing attention to skin not normally bare. The skirt was full, but draped around her as she moved – none of the usual stiff petticoats Nanny required her to wear.

She didn’t look like a princess. 

She looked like a young queen, with a regal sureness and grace that any governess would have approved of. Keith slid his eyes in Nanny’s direction, since he was relatively sure that she had not approved the dress. There was a frown on the older woman’s face, but she made no fuss as the princesses came to a halt in front of Sven and Keith.

Keith had a moment of envy as he watched Sven bow to Allura and Romelle, then lift Romelle’s hand to his lips for a kiss. In that moment, the former Voltron pilot and the Polluxian princess might have been the only two people in the ballroom – or in the world. 

He was happy that his friend had found love, especially after all that Sven had been through, but their situation was different. Sven and Romelle had the freedom to do as they pleased, to love as they pleased. 

No matter how much he wanted to, Keith knew he couldn’t do the same. Instead, he made his most proper bow, watching as Allura dipped her head slightly in response. All he could do was offer her his arm, and try not to think too much about anything else he might want to do. At least he had the honor of being her partner in the first dance.

As they fell into step behind Sven and Romelle, Keith took the chance to say softly, “Nanny looks pretty displeased over that dress.”

Allura turned her head slightly. “Then it’s good I have you here to protect me. What do you think about it?”

There was a tone in her voice he had never heard before…almost like she was trying to flirt with him.

Could she be flirting with him? “You look incredible,” he said after a moment.

*** ***

They took their places on the dance floor. Allura thought how odd, how intimate, it felt to have her hand clasped in his, his other hand resting above her waist, warm even though her dress. It was not that they never touched each other - she had grappled with him enough times, or the random touches that happened between friends – but somehow they had never stood on a dance floor together. 

He had never told her that she looked incredible, either.

She had indulged in a silly fantasy that he might follow Sven’s lead, might lift her hand to his lips, but it had been just that – a fantasy. One that somehow made this moment more intense.

Then the music started and they were gliding across the floor.

It was almost as good as her fantasy.

She might be a princess, but there had been no fancy balls or parties for a long time – not after Zarkon had done his level best to destroy Arus, after so many had died or been enslaved, or just suffered. Allura had a few vague memories of balls when her parents had been alive, of her mother’s dress rustling as she kissed Allura goodnight, or of spying on the ballroom from a balcony before Nanny had found her and scolded her. There had been dance lessons from Coran, of course, as part of her royal duties. 

Those lessons had been very different from this. Dancing with Keith was nothing like dancing with her father’s old friend, possibly because she wasn’t so focused on learning the steps. With Keith as her partner, she could just dance, confident in her steps and her partner.

She wished it could last all night.

It would not last, of course. It might be a ball to celebrate her dear cousin’s engagement, but it was also a formal event that required her to do the proper thing. The tension in Nanny’s face warned her that trying to escape her duty dances was not a good idea – no matter how boring she found the princes or dignitaries.

But duty didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy herself, and she promised herself she would find a way to dance with Keith again.

*** ***

And in between duty dances, she did have fun. 

She danced with Sven, and pondered how different everything would have been if he had remained the pilot of Blue Lion. Would he still have met Romelle and fallen in love with her?

She danced with Lance, who was easily the best dancer of the group – Keith had the steps for the formal dances down, but Lance seemed to know all of them, surprising her as he dipped her down smoothly as part of a turn. When she looked up, Allura was amused to see both Nanny and Keith giving Lance a displeased look.

She danced with Pidge in one of the informal dances that involved a lot of trading partners, glad to see him having a good time.

She danced with Hunk, who moved with surprising sureness for such a big man – it had not escaped her notice that he was very much in demand among the ladies. He guided her over to the table of exquisite Polluxian pastries for a much-needed refreshment break, and Allura was amused to see how the older lady fawned over him. 

She danced with Coran, who both praised her for her conduct and warned her that Nanny was going to have choice words for her. It had not escaped her notice that Coran was also in high demand among the women of a certain age.

She even danced with Bandor, who was putting on his best grown-up prince airs.

But it wasn’t until after that dance that Allura had the opportunity to sneak away for a few minutes, into the garden. Once it had been a beautiful formal garden, with a maze and gazebos and beauty, until it had been destroyed. It was starting to come back to life, but in the moonlight it looked stark. She sat down by the fountain at the heart of the garden, enjoying the cool air, wondering what it would be like to walk out here with Keith.

“Princess?” She looked up, saw Keith standing there, as if she had summoned him by thinking of him. “Is everything all right?”

She smiled. “I just needed a bit of a break. Dancing is hard work.”

He dropped to sit beside her. “You do it so well, though.”

“All part of the princess job.”

They sat there in a comfortable silence, with Allura wondering what would happen if she leaned towards Keith and kissed him. Just as she had almost worked up the courage, just as she was starting to move, she heard Nanny’s voice.

Keith jumped up from the bench as if he had been burned.

Allura sighed. At least she still had her fantasies, and even Nanny couldn’t take them away.


End file.
